The only thing that kept the farm from a perfect 6-0 record was a blown save. Check out who it was below!
- Pete Kozma had 2 doubles in 5 at-bats
- Bryan Anderson hit a solo-shot in the 2nd and finished 3-5
- Mark Hamilton and Shane Robinson both went 2-4, all singles. Robinson walked and Hamilton was hit by a pitch
- Tyler Greene hit 1-4 and walked once
- Matt Carpenter went hitless in 5 at-bats and committed an error
- Brandon Dickson had a great all-around night as he went 2-4 at the plate and pitched a dominant game. He gave up just 1 run off of 6 hits (1 HR and a double), walked none, and struck out 8 over 7 innings.
- David Kopp and Rich Rundles both pitched a shutout inning each
Northwest Arkansas 5, Springfield 4
- Zack Cox again hit a home run…make that 2 on the night. He has 4 homers in his last 3 games played
- Matt Adams hit DH and went 2-4
- Daryl Jones led off and had a double as his sole hit in 5 at-bats
- Charles Cutler hit 2 singles
- Jermaine Curtis was 1-3 with a walk
- Ryan Jackson went 1-4 and committed his 18th error
- Shelby Miller came back from suspension to throw 4 innings and give up 2 runs off of 2 hits, 3 walks, a balk, and 3 strikeouts
- Jorge Rondon gave up 2 runs in the 9th to blow the save
- Oscar Taveras had another great night in a row as he went 3-4 with a double and walk
- Cody Stanley also went 3-4 with a walk and added a triple. Both Taveras and he had 7 RBI combined
- Jonathan Rodriguez was 1-3 with a double and walk
- Nick Longmire hit a 2-run shot in the 7th as his only hit in 5 at-bats
- Patrick Elkins hit 9th and went 2-4
- Zach Russell was effectively wild after he walked 4 and gave up 2 hits for 5 shutout innings. He struck out 3
Batavia 2, Williamsport 1 in 7 innings (Game One)
- Jeremy Patton was the only batter to get more than 1 hit as he finished 2-3 with a double
- Casey Rasmus and Juan Castillo both went 1-3. Rasmus was also caught stealing
- Cesar Valera hit 9th and had a single
- Corey Baker gave up 1 unearned run over 5 innings off of 4 hits. He neither walked or struck out a batter and recorded 8 groundouts to 3 flyouts
Batavia 2, Williamsport 1 in 7 innings (Game Two)
- Daniel Stienstra hit 2nd and went 3-4 with a double. He was the only Batavia batter to have an extra-base hit
- Jeremy Patton hit cleanup and had 3 singles in 4 at-bats
- Nick Martini and Cesar Valera both stole a base
- Patrick Daugherty had an odd line as he gave up 4 hits and 4 walks in 4.1 innings but didn’t give up a run. His scoreless outing probably had a lot to do with his 7:0 groundout-to-flyout ratio
- Breyvic Valera led off and had 3 singles in 5 at-bats
- Tyler Rahmatulla got back on track after he went 2-5 with a double
- Jesus Montero started behind the plate and was 2-4 with a double
- David Washington had a hat trick in strikeouts. He also walked once
- Anthony Garcia hit a 2-run homer in the 8th as his sole hit
- Tyrell Jenkins had a mediocre night after he gave up 3 runs off of 4 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings. He struck out 7 and allowed a home run
Entries (RSS)
What do guys think of Jeremy Patton? He has more walks that strikeouts and lots of doubles. Low round draft pick but what are the chances he turns into something.
He’s having a solid debut. It will be interesting to see how full season assignments shake out next year. Wong could be at PB or possibly Springfield. If he goes to PB first, then Patton and Tyler Rahmatulla will be fighting it out for playing time in Quad Cities. Patton is the older player of the two so they’ll probably be more aggressive with him.
Great to see Cox in 3 games nearly double his Springfield HR total. Perhaps our concerns about his power were premature. His stock is definitely up.
Do you think we start him at Memphis next year? He is on a ML contract after all…
His first homer was to dead center too, so it can’t be because of the park.
Yea both of his home runs were crushed tonight and would have been out in any park. Both no doubters right off the bat. One of his to dead center and the other was a opposite field to left-center.
Why is Rondon still around?
He throws real hard…….and thats about all.
Because it’s always hard to let go of a guy who can get it up there near triple digits. Look how long Baltimore tried to teach Daniel Cabrera how to pitch. Rondon’s numbers are rough, but the arm is big enough he’ll hang around for quite a while, even if he ultimately ends up nothing more than a tease.
Suppose anybody has told Taveras his BABIP is too high?
Anyone else have to read the line on Anthony Garcia twice? Probably not.
In all seriousness though, reading through his season line tonight, and then realizing that Oscar, who is five months younger, was having an even better year at a higher level was a nice reaffirmation of his (Oscar’s) status.
As for Cox, is there any feeling from scouts on players who have to go through a lengthy adjustment period before producing offensively? It makes me wonder if this type of player relies on more of a mechanical approach rather than an innate feel for consistently squaring up on pitches. And if that’s the case is one type more likely than the other to be exploited at higher levels, or experience prolonged slumps? For example, I remember worrying about Colby’s swing allowing him to adjust to those troublesome inside breaking balls, and if he did eventually make a mechanical adjustment would it diminish his outer plate coverage? By comparison, Jason Heyward has always been great at changing levels and using his arms and wrists when it’s called for for breaking pitches that would otherwise have him fooled.
I guess that’s mostly just scouting with hindsight, but it’s interesting how differently players can be successful. Then again, maybe they’re just phenomena of SSS.
As the saying goes, baseball is a game of adjustments. To me, this pattern shows that Cox is able to adjust to 1) the higher level of talent, and 2) the more refined approaches more talented pitchers use to attack hitters. I would rather see a guy that shows the ability to adjust or “figure things out” than one that simply relies on his ability.
What ever work’s just keep doing it! He’s doing great so far.
I would say that taking 100 or so PAs before adjusting to AA in a player’s first year is Not a “lengthy” adjustment period. Repeating a level would probably qualify, though. Indeed, the fact that Cox made the adjustment so quickly strongly suggests that Cox is not the type of player you’re talking about. (neither is Rasmus or Heyward, for that matter)
Very true. A hundred PAs aren’t enough to start drawing conclusions from, and for that reason it wouldn’t apply to Rasmus, either. What I meant about Heyward was that his ability eliminated or at least limited an adjustment period. Although, we’re then talking about high school draftees who are young for their league compared with age-appropriate, polished college bats.
I’m really, really liking what we’re seeing from Tyrell Jenkins. Even when he’s not pitching lights out, he’s still pretty solid. For as young and unpolished as he was considerred to be coming out, he’s done a remarkable job of aviding those blowup games we see often se from guys as they’re breaking in. It’s oddhe’s so hittable considering the quality of his stuff and hiss high strikeout totals. I suppose he may be one of those guys who misses in the zone, rather than out of it. He never really seems to have too many wild games, with tons of walks, but he does give up a fair number of hit. Hopefully as he improves his command we see those hit numbers drop to where you would expect to see them from a pitcher with such obvious swing and miss stuff.
Bah. Please forgive the typos. Commenting on the phone w/o the mobile theme, and the comment box is acting kind of wonky on me.
Maybe it’s worth noting that in a handful of games he’s shown extreme groundball tendencies, too. It could be reaching, but if he’s doing a good job of pitching to groundball contact and the inexperienced defense is having an off-night, then his hits against and ERA are going to suffer.
Is there a site that keeps track of line drive and ground ball rates for minor leaguers? That could wreck this theory.
First Inning has batted ball data. I don’t know how good it is, but it’s almost certainly more useful than guessing.
For whatever it’s worth, Jenkins’s groundball rate this year is 60%. That’s pretty elite. No LD data for pitchers, though. They have it for hitters. Kind of disappointing not to have it for the other side.
And your point about defense is well made. It’s why we always tend to discount BABIP numbers for minor leaguers, particularly below a certain level. It’s just impossible to know how representative the defense is playing behind a guy.
Tyrell is legit…he has a top notch fastball / curve combo. The raw stuff is there all he needs is time and some luck staying healthy.
He may have to develope an attitude like Gibby did before he makes the show!!
Saw Shelby start tonight, his first inning was tough. He was having trouble from what I saw throwing for strikes and locating his pitches. He almost threw half of his pitches in teh 1st (31 out of 67) and one of the runs he allowed was due to a balk. He was in the mid 90′s with his fastball. After the first inning he had everything working and had some easier innings and began striking people out. It looked like rust and once he got settled in he began to pitch well and efficent. And took him out to just watch his pitch count. He easily could have gone deeper in the game.
A note on Jackson, I was suprised to see that it was his 18th error of the season. I think it was a grounder and on the exhange from glove to throwing hand it slipped. I think his hands were moving faster than the exchange. I’ve been to a ton of game and he looks like he can play shortstop. I’ve seen him make some very tough plays look easy and can cover a lot of range. He makes the postion look easy on tough plays sometimes. His bat has been solid for springfield this year, I was a bit suprised to see he leads the team with 31 doubles.
Bottom line is that Springfields bullpen can’t hold the lead. Someone blows the lead it seams. Lyman pitched very well tonight. Just wish they would have put Swagerty in the game to close it out and see how he does in late innings over Rondon. A pitcher who is now 1-8 with an era over 9 has no business closing out a game.
Bottomline on Cox, he is locked in and showing his talent with the bat.
I was also surprised to see Jackson has 18 errors. Anyone have info on the type of errors, whether they are all his fault or partly caused by bad hands at first base or simply due to great range and wild throws?
It could be one of those things where because of his range and ability, he’s able to make plays an average shortstop couldn’t make, and when he fails, it looks like an error to the scorer.
Yea the range and ability thing is what I have seen in the 15 or so games i’ve seen in play at Springfield. He makes plays look easy that anyone else would have trouble with. I havent seen wild throws or anything, hes a above average defender at shortstop and only has so many errors because he is able to get to more balls than most shortstops.
Remember when people were worried about Cox?.. Lol
Sounds like he has a ways to go defensively. I’m glad to see him heating up at the plate with power.
Bryan Anderson’s really turned his year around. It’s a shame he’s now blocked by both Tony Cruz and Tony La Russa’s love of useless veteran backups.
I feel a theme emerging…nah that cant be I always felt like John Jay was unfairly blocked by Colby Rasmus and that worked out ok.
I swear I have let go.
If TLR is gone next year he may not be blocked by Cruz. If TLR is gone pretty much anything is fair game I believe.
I agree
I was reading Jeff Gordon’s Monday chat, and for the first time in response to a question he seemed to suggest that TLR may well move on after this season.
He said: “All the signs seem to point toward him seeking a fresh challenge after this season. He is hard on himself and he can’t like the way this season turned. With so many Cards mulling free-agent options, I believe he’ll view this as a good time to finally move down the trail.”
This is from a writer whom I have always read to be supportive of TLR. I agree with Andrew that if TLR leaves, how they go forward is “pretty much anything is fair game”. I think TLR being the manager and obviously managing to win every year has affected how the team has been constructed and the moves they have made in season.
In the same chat I asked Gordon if he thought it was a viable option going foreward, that if Albert goes elsewhere due to what he wants or is offered by another team, that they could decide to “start fresh” and take the draft choice comp picks for Albert (2), Carp (2), Berkman (1), Jackson (1), Dotel (1), Rhodes (1) and Furcal (possibly 1, although likely not) (all based on the MLB Trade Rumors projections), and he said there was no reason to do that.
I disagree. With all of those picks they could use the money to reload, similarly to what Tampa, Toronto and the Angels have done the last two seasons. After this upcoming off season and next year’s draft, the draft pick compensation rules are expected to change. I think it is the “last call for alcohol”.
To get the picks, you have to offer arbitration. I hope they don’t do that to Dotel and Rhodes. But you’ve got a good point.
How much do you figure Dotel makes in arb? He’s still a useful reliever. The supplemental pick would be very nice.
In this morning’s latest MLB Trade Rumors compensation rankings Berkman in now listed as a Type A free agent (2 picks), and Jackson while still a Type B, is on the bubble with Westbrooke potentially overtaking him and thus no compensation for Jackson.
I would guess the Cards would have no problem offering arbitration to Albert, Carp (if they don’t just exercise his option), and Berkman, while I am guessing that they could have one of the “wink and a nod” arrangements with Jackson, Dotel and Rhodes to offer and decline arbitration, since as Type B’s it won’t affect any of those pitchers’ free agent negotiations.
I assume that Jackson not being a B would lead to a bump in the PTBL from Toronto.
I won’t believe TLR is moving on until it happens. Not this year, not next year, not ever.
Even if TLR is gone, Cruz will still be blocking Anderson.
Cruz has played well while here and is probably better defensively but we really don’t know what a new field management team will want out of a backup catcher.
Most managers, in my view, want the same thing out of a back-up catcher that TLR: A good defensive catcher who can handle the pitching staff, bat comes second. In my opinion, Cruz has passed Anderson in both respects in the eyes of the organization, not just the major league coaching staff.
He may have turned his year around, but only to achieve the same middling offensive year he’s had in AAA since 2008. He’s got a wOBA+ of 97. (Cruz’s is 96 and Anderson has almost 30 points of BABIP on Cruz – their wOBAr’s are the same.)
Did I miss something, I haven’t seen Kolten Wong’s name in a several days.
DL – hamstring
I we could have signatures on this blog, I bet I know what you’re sig would be….
I just wish I had a better way to update people on injuries. I don’t like posts on them since I rarely get the info first hand or in a timely fashion.
Disabled list due to excessive backflipping, all thanks to a certain robot who shall remain nameless.
Good post about the recent past drafts by the organization over at VEB. After last night (last two games, actually) it was nice to read about something other than the team’s performance. As to Wong, whenever I hear his last name, I can’t help but think about the movie, “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.” Maybe a short documentary could be made about minor league peccadilloes, called ” To K Wong Foo, Thanks For the Back Flip, The Robot.”
THAT. WAS. AWESOME!
/little kid from The Incredibles
or Tommy Callahan.
Brandon Dickson’s last 3 starts: 20.2 innings, 24 K’s, 3 BB’s, 3 runs. I’d rather see him starting for the Cardinals in Sept than Lohse or Westbrook.
AMEN!!!
Both of Zack Cox’s longballs came off top pitching prospect Jake Odorizzi last night. Odo has been so-so since his AA promotion, but still, it’s encouraging.
Taveras July + August: .366/.444/.581 with a stellar 25/28 BB/K in 200 plate appearances. I can’t name five minor leaguers I’d trade him for right now.
Hmm. Trout, Matt Moore, Harper, Manny Machado, probably Teheran, maybe Jurikson Profar. (Maybe.)
That’s literally about all I can come up with. And most of those are simply because of positional scarcity and not superior performance. Taveras has been just flat-our ridiculous this year.
Actually, if we’re including this year’s draftees, I would deal him for Trevor Bauer as well. Still, the mere fact I had to sit here for several minutes trying to think of minor leaguers I would honestly prefer to have just proves your point.
I would be surprised if they don’t have some sort of agreement not to offer arbitration to Berkman also. After all he signed a one year contract to increase his free agent value for next season.
And can we really be excited about getting nothing but a couple of draft picks for Puhols?
Finally, is it wrong to be amused by people who keep asking where Wong is?
Why would they have an agreement with him not to offer arb? His Type A status would mean a bit less interest, but the deal he ends up signing will probably be for the same or similar value. I don’t think there’s any way we don’t offer Berkman arb, especially because his lost 2010 skews down his arb value and most Cards fans agree it’d be nice to keep him around for one more year anyway, should he accept.
Not at all.. It makes me giggle every time..
It’s not wong to be amused.
I like Master Wong. Great carryout cashew chicken!!
so who’s the position player of the year for the farm system? i say it’s down to matt carpenter, zack cox, oscar taveras or matt adams..adam’s average has really dropped off but his power #s are very impressive..it’s a tough pick, i think taveras won’t win it though because of the lack of games played..his average though is awesome and he has increased his walks lately ..i’ll go with matt adams to win it
It should be Adams. Taveras is the better prospect by a fair bit, but Adams is setting records and has been a force of nature this season after skipping a level. He deserves it. Carp and Cox have both been pretty outstanding — Carpenter in particular — but not to the same extent of those other two.
I go with adams. maybe its im being bias since watching him play a lot and he has been a beast all year at the plate.
Adams or Taveras no question in my mind. The winner is if it’s judged based on pure numbers or prospect value.
While Adams has been great, of course, his OPS is “only” about 200 points above the Texas League…while Taveras is now more than 300 above the MWL.
I go Taveras for Player Of The Year.
Here’s a fun Taveras stat: throw out his June 40 AB’s (9-40 with 13 K’s), while he was recovering from his 2nd hamstring problem, and his season line looks like this:
.397/.460/.607 with 29 walks and just 35 whiffs in more than 250 PA’s.
Un-freakin’ believable for a teenager in the Midwest League.
Maybe I’m Wong… I mean wrong about Berkman, but supposedly he signed here for less money than he could have gotten elsewhere according to Mo. I hope I am because I would love to have Berkman as a type A free agent, but if others think there is a wink and nod agreement with other free agents I would certainly expect Berkman to be one of those. Would be happy to be Wong… wrong though.
I would think that Berkman would want to end his career in Houston or STL. I doubt he wants to just take the most money somewhere and risk having a bad experience like he did in NY. With Houston being such a miserable situation you would think he would want to stay in STL.
To me what Berkman does depends on Pujols. If we sign Pujols we will not be able to afford Berkman even if he was willing to spend another year in the outfield. If we don’t sign Pujols than we could afford to sign Berkman but it makes the Cardinals a less desirable destination. You would also assume/hope that the Cardinals would want to sign him to a one/two year contract with Adams coming up but that Berkman would probably want at least 3 years.
Also, Berkman has said he wants to play for a contender. If he doesn’t view St. Louis as a contender, he’s probably gone, Pujols or no Pujols.
Good points all around, but I get the impression Berkman is only thinking one year at a time at this stage of his career. I would think a 2-year contract is the most he’d want or agree to.
Pujols and Berkman would seem to need to be independent decisions since Pujols probably sign late and Berkman most likely won’t want to wait until Pujols sign to know his future.
I don’t think it’s a Pujols-or-Berkman matter; I think it’s a Berkman-or-Carpenter. (Unless ownership is willing to bump payroll by $8-10M.)
More to the point, would & should ownership want Carp back at $15M next year? I’m on the fence.
Ownership could afford Pujols, Berkman and Carp but it would necessitate not wasting money on the likes of Theriot, Franklin, Skip, McClellan, Miller, Laird, Batista, etc. But doubtful the team can wean itself from such players.
Someone article suggested that Carp doesn’t believe the team will pick up the option and will be letting him go. I’m hoping they see the value in him for a nother 2 or 3 years and tries to turn the 15 mil option to 2 years 22 or 3 years 33. Carp mentored Waino and I hope for him to mentor Shelby Miller also. This last few months shows me that Carp still has it and can also battle even when he doesn’t have his best stuff. IMO he’s has been the heart of the Cardinals this year.
The heart of a team with no heart?
I understand your sentiment. His success has coincided with the team success over the last 8 or so years. That said, Rosenthal’s comment about the Brewers being the anti-Cardinals struck me as interesting. It seems that this team has been all business and no fun for a while. Why is that? Is it LaRussa? Team leaders Carpenter and Pujols? We made moves to help the team chemistry in the off-season, essentially eliminating irritants to those three guys. It helped early, but I wonder if the glowing articles from earlier in the year could still be written. If there are continued problems after removing the “irritants” maybe they weren’t the problem to begin with. This will be an interesting off-season to say the least.